Four Days On, Families Of Missing IAF Plane Are Pleading Authorities To Search For It

Families of the 13 men who were on board the ill-fated AN-32 of the Indian Air Force that went missing on Monday are continuing their painful wait to get some news about their loved ones. The IAF has intensified its search for the missing aircraft despite challenges posed by vegetation, inhospitable terrain and poor weather conditions.

On Wednesday, the IAF pressed into service a SU-30 jet fighter, C130 J, Mi 17 and ALH helicopters to trace the missing Russian-origin transporter aircraft other than the Indian Army helicopters, Indian Navy, Police, and State Administration who are also assisting in the operation.?

Reuters/ Representational Image

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) satellites - CARTOSAT and RISAT are also taking images of the area where the aircraft is suspected to have crashed.

Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Eastern Air Command, Air Marshal R.D. Mathur is monitoring the search and rescue operations. He had interacted with the families of the missing IAF personnel.?

For the family of Flight Lieutenant Ashish Tanwar, it was a piece of news that shook them beyond words - because when the entire thing was unfolding his wife Sandhya Tanwar who is also an IAF officer was at the Air Traffic Control.

They got married two years back and had joined duty on May 18 after spending their vacations.?

Ashish had joined the IAF in 2013 and was commissioned as a pilot in the IAF in 2015.

Meanwhile, according to some reports the SOS signal unit on the Soviet-designed twin-engine transport aircraft was outdated and this could be the reason why the search teams are not able to trace any signals from it.

The AN-32 which has been with the IAF for nearly four decades has been extensively used for transporting items to even remote places.

The ill-fated aircraft took off from Jorhat in Assam and was on its way to a remote military landing strip in Mechuka in Arunachal Pradesh and had 13 people onboard.